Matrix Reboot Wants Michael B. Jordan, Writers Room Planned

Many fans are still reeling from the news that Warner Bros. is exploring a Matrix reboot, with the studio bringing on Zak Penn (The Avengers) to write a treatment. The project is still in the very early stages of development, although sources claim that Michael B. Jordan is being eyed for the project, with another report stating that Warner Bros. is planning a writers room to come up with ideas for a cinematic universe. But that hasn't been confirmed by the studio. If this does come to fruition, The Matrix 4 will become the latest in a growing group of franchises to use this writers room format.

Deadline broke the news of this potential writers room being utilized, but it isn't clear how Zak Penn will fit into this process. As of now, the initial report only revealed that he's writing the treatment and not the full screenplay yet, but perhaps this treatment will provide a roadmap of sorts for the writers room. As for Michael B. Jordan's potential involvement, it isn't known what kind of role he may have, or if his character will have any connection to characters from the original trilogy. It still hasn't been confirmed if the Wachowski siblings, Lana and Lily, will be involved, or if the original producer, Joel Silver will come back as well, although Joel Silver recently did address the possibility of another Matrix movie last year.

While promoting his comedy The Nice Guys, Joel Silver said that the original trilogy was, "very seriously designed as three stories," although he added that he hoped there would be a time where another Matrix movie could happen. The original report from last night, though, revealed that Joel Silver actually approached the studio about making more Matrix films, even though he doesn't have a stake in the franchise anymore. Warner Bros. bought Joel Silver's stake in the Matrix franchise for roughly $30 million back in 2012, and last night's report hinted that the studio is much more interested in bringing the Wachowski siblings on board, than the producer, since Joel Silver reportedly has a "strained" relationship with the filmmakers, and he also has issues with keeping budgets under control.

Just a few weeks before this news broke, original Matrix star Keanu Reeves revealed he would come back to play Neo in a new Matrix movie, as long as the Wachowski siblings were on board to both write and direct. Whether or not that will happen is still up in the air, but if the studio is actually going with a writers room format for this franchise, that likely means the Wachowski siblings won't be writing the script directly. As far as the writers room approach goes, that format has increasingly grown in popularity since it was first introduced with the Universal monsters reboot franchise. Since then, several other franchises have created their own writers rooms, such as Transformers, G.I. Joe, Sherlock Holmes, Godzilla and King Kong.

Back in 2014, a rumor surfaced that the Wachowski siblings were coming back to write and direct a new Matrix trilogy, with the first of these movies hitting theaters in 2017. The filmmakers reportedly had already turned in outlines and treatments for the next Matrix trilogy, but even if that report was true, it seems the studio is putting their faith in writer Zak Penn for now. Then again, that could have just been an unsubstantiated rumor, much like the report that surfaced in 2011, when Keanu Reeves revealed during a speech at the London School of Performing Arts University that there will be two more Matrix movies happening in 3D. Hopefully Warner Bros. will shed some new light on these reports of The Matrix reboot soon. Michael B. Jordan is currently filming Black Panther, which hits theaters on February 16, 2018.